Hysteria In The 19th Century

It is fascinated how the history of hysteria started as well as the study of trauma. I have to say that this was a very brave study to be done in the nineteenth century. As a goal was to banish all the atrocities from the consciousness. But in order to do that the researchers started studying the trauma and hysteria.

The first person to be interested in something like this was French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. The study started at the most expansive hospital, an ancient Salpetriere which was located in Paris, France. The Salpetriere was in that time home for beggars, prostitutes, and the insane until Charcot took it and transformed it into a temple of modern science. The most intelligent people in the new disciplines of neurology and
The investigations that Charcot made was not only in medicine but also the ideas outside of medicine world such as literature and politics. The lectures that he was having were theatrical events, with the diverse audience drawn from all Paris with different occupations. In this lectures Charcot illustrated the findings on hysteria theatrically. Charcot gained great success, and opened a serious scientific investigation. He was focused on the symptoms of hysteria which point out that are neurological damage, such as motor paralyses, sensory losses, convulsions, and amnesia. According to (Herman, 1992): “By 1880 he had concluded that these symptoms were psychological. The patients he put on display were young woman who had found refuge in the Salpetriere from lives of unremitting, violence, exploitation, and rape. The asylum provided them greater safety and protection that they had ever known; for a selected group of woman who became Charcot’s star performers, the asylum also offered something close to fame.” Though Charcot paid a very small attention to the symptoms that his patients had, he had no interest whatsoever in their internal lives. According to (Herman, 1992): “He described their speech as “vocalization.” His
Her father had essentially offered her to his friends as a sexual toy. Freud refuse, however, to validate Dora’s feeling of outrage and humiliation. Instead, he insisted upon exploring her feelings of erotic excitement, as if the exploitative situations were a fulfillment of her desire. In an act that Freud viewed as revenge, Dora broke off the treatment.” (Herman,